This paper explores cultural imaginaries in projects dedicated to the design of human-like machines. Working with discussions of mimesis as developed by anthropologists Michael Taussig, M (1993) and Gell, A (1998), the author looks at some exemplary realizations of 'socially intelligent' robots, proposing an approach aimed at demystifying and reenchanting such encounters. This alternative is developed through a close analysis of a project at the intersection of computing and new media art, performance artist Stelare's prosthetic head. Drawing on recent discussions within cultural anthropology, science and technology studies, and feminist theory, the author offers some suggestions for how we might differently conceptualize relations between humans and computational machines

Beginning in the late 1980s, a small cohort of anthropologists and computer scientists at Xerox Palo Alto Research Center developed an interdisciplinary research programme concerned with the design and use of information technologies. Our projects over the years joined ethnographies of work and technologies-in-use with design interventions. This paper briefly reviews this program of research, illustrated with specific examples. Our ethnographic approach is exemplified in an early research project on information and communications technologies-in-use within a particular workplace. This project led, among other things, to a reconceptualization of what makes up an "information system" that informed all of our subsequent work. The latter turned increasingly to interventions aimed at exploring what I characterize as practice-based design, combining elements of workplace ethnography and cooperative prototyping. These efforts are illustrated by a collaborative research and development project involving the transformation of a particular collection of documents - the project files of a civil engineering team engaged in designing a bridge - from paper to digital media.

This article reports our experiences in developing a work-oriented design practice. We sketch our general approach to relating work practice studies and design, including our use of case-based prototypes. We go on to describe our entry into the law firm that was the setting for this project and our decision to focus our design efforts on two forms of work at the firm. We discuss our experiences in developing a case-based prototype to support the work of document search and retrieval. We then describe our encounters with organizational politics at the firm in the context of a joint exploration of image analysis technologies in relation to the work of litigation support. We conclude with findings on the practices of working with document collections, the value of case-based prototypes, and recommendations for combining work practice studies and design interventions.

Article Free Access Share on Video: Data for studying human-computer interaction Authors: W. E. Mackay Massachusetts Istitute of Technology Massachusetts Istitute of TechnologyView Profile , R. Guindon Microelectronics and Computer Technology Corporation Microelectronics and Computer Technology CorporationView Profile , M. M. Mantel Electric Data Systems Corporation Electric Data Systems CorporationView Profile , L. Suchman Xerox Palo Alto Research Center Xerox Palo Alto Research CenterView Profile , D. G. Tatar Xerox Palo Alto Research Center Xerox Palo Alto Research CenterView Profile Authors Info & Claims CHI '88: Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing SystemsMay 1988 Pages 133–137https://doi.org/10.1145/57167.57189Published:01 May 1988Publication History 15citation544DownloadsMetricsTotal Citations15Total Downloads544Last 12 Months56Last 6 weeks6 Get Citation AlertsNew Citation Alert added!This alert has been successfully added and will be sent to:You will be notified whenever a record that you have chosen has been cited.To manage your alert preferences, click on the button below.Manage my AlertsNew Citation Alert!Please log in to your account Save to BinderSave to BinderCreate a New BinderNameCancelCreateExport CitationPublisher SiteeReaderPDF

Article Free Access Share on Groupware: interface design for meetings Authors: M. Mantei Electronic Data Systems Corporation Electronic Data Systems CorporationView Profile , L. Suchman Xerox Palo Alto Research Center Xerox Palo Alto Research CenterView Profile , DeSanctis Univ. of Minnesota Univ. of MinnesotaView Profile , L. Applegate Harvard Univ., Cambridge Massachusetts Harvard Univ., Cambridge MassachusettsView Profile , S. Jarvenpaa Univ. of Texas, Austin, TX Univ. of Texas, Austin, TXView Profile Authors Info & Claims CHI '88: Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing SystemsMay 1988 Pages 161–163https://doi.org/10.1145/57167.57194Online:01 May 1988Publication History 5citation356DownloadsMetricsTotal Citations5Total Downloads356Last 12 Months5Last 6 weeks2 Get Citation AlertsNew Citation Alert added!This alert has been successfully added and will be sent to:You will be notified whenever a record that you have chosen has been cited.To manage your alert preferences, click on the button below.Manage my AlertsNew Citation Alert!Please log in to your account Save to BinderSave to BinderCreate a New BinderNameCancelCreateExport CitationPublisher SiteeReaderPDF

article Free Access Share on Designing with the user: book review of Computers and democracy: a Scandinavian challenge, G. Bjerknes, P. Ehn, and M. Kyng, Eds. Gower Press, Brookfield, VT, 1987 Author: Lucy Suchman Xerox Palo Alto Research Center, Palo Alto, CA Xerox Palo Alto Research Center, Palo Alto, CAView Profile Authors Info & Claims ACM Transactions on Information SystemsVolume 6Issue 2April 1988 pp 173–183https://doi.org/10.1145/45941.383895Online:01 April 1988Publication History 17citation798DownloadsMetricsTotal Citations17Total Downloads798Last 12 Months47Last 6 weeks9 Get Citation AlertsNew Citation Alert added!This alert has been successfully added and will be sent to:You will be notified whenever a record that you have chosen has been cited.To manage your alert preferences, click on the button below.Manage my AlertsNew Citation Alert!Please log in to your account Save to BinderSave to BinderCreate a New BinderNameCancelCreateExport CitationPublisher SiteeReaderPDF

Contributions from the behavioral sciences to the design of computer systems have come primarily from psychology, and have focused on individual cognition. In this symposium, we consider the applicability to system design of approaches that focus on social interaction. The participants comprise pairs of researchers engaged in projects that aim to bring together systematic studies of naturally occurring human activities with the design of computer-based technology. Each of the projects emphasizes the importance of the social organization of communities, everyday communication and practice.

This paper describes a methodological and topical framework for studying collaboration in research settings. The framework is intended to capture the central activities and issues in research collaboration, and to represent them in a way that can inform the design of computer support. In this paper we present our starting premises for studying collaboration, describe our use of qualitative and naturalistic methods, and report our preliminary findings.

This paper describes a project underway to investigate computer support for collaboration. In particular, we focus on experience with and extensions to NoteCards, a hypertext-based idea structuring system. The forms of collaboration discussed include draft-passing, simultaneous sharing and online presentations. The requirement that mutual intelligibility be maintained between collaborators leads to the need for support of annotative and procedural as well as substantive activities.

article Technology in use (panel session) Share on Authors: Sharon Traweek Joint Appointment in Anthropology and The Program in Science, Technology and Society, MIT Joint Appointment in Anthropology and The Program in Science, Technology and Society, MITView Profile , Michael Lynch Department of Sociology, Whitman College Department of Sociology, Whitman CollegeView Profile , Richard Frankel Department of Medicine, Wayne State, University and consultant, National Aeronautics and Space Administration Department of Medicine, Wayne State, University and consultant, National Aeronautics and Space AdministrationView Profile , Brigitte Jordon Departments of Anthropology and Pediatrics, Michigan State University Departments of Anthropology and Pediatrics, Michigan State UniversityView Profile , Editor: Lucy A. Suchman Intelligent Systems Laboratory, Xerox Palo Alto Research Center, 3333 Coyote Hill Road, Palo Alto, CA Intelligent Systems Laboratory, Xerox Palo Alto Research Center, 3333 Coyote Hill Road, Palo Alto, CAView Profile Authors Info & Claims ACM SIGCHI BulletinVolume 16Issue 4April 1985 pp 89–92https://doi.org/10.1145/1165385.317473Published:01 April 1985 1citation214DownloadsMetricsTotal Citations1Total Downloads214Last 12 Months5Last 6 weeks0 Get Citation AlertsNew Citation Alert added!This alert has been successfully added and will be sent to:You will be notified whenever a record that you have chosen has been cited.To manage your alert preferences, click on the button below.Manage my AlertsNew Citation Alert!Please log in to your account Save to BinderSave to BinderCreate a New BinderNameCancelCreateExport CitationPublisher SiteGet Access

The design of office technology relies upon underlying conceptions of human organization and action.The goal of building office information systems requires a representation of office work and its relevant objects.The concern of this paper is that although system designers recognize the centrality of procedural tasks in the office, they tend to ignore the actual work involved in accomplishing those tasks.A perspicuous instance of work in an accounting office is used to recommend a new line of research into the practical problems of office work, and to suggest preliminary implications of that research for office systems design.